this post was submitted on 29 May 2026
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Slop.

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I truly did not want to make this post, but since apparently not a single person here or in the other thread told you off for suggesting communism as an alternative for Germany I guess I have to.

Frankly it is quite disgusting, not only tone deaf, that communism is being suggested by you, even though Germans, the same people that are still alive to this very day, have well experienced DDR and what it brought for Germany in terms of economic and social changes. You can have a look at various map breakdowns of Germany to see how East Germany fares to this day in economic development, average income, HDI and voting patterns. Suffice to say, the DDR was hardly a good state to live in, especially in the 80s when the Warsaw Pact was going through economic downturns. That's not even mentioning just how authoritarian the state was. If you ask any older person in East Germany, most of them will tell you that they personally know someone who was in the revealed Stasi files. A massive secret police that would only rival the KGB in its prominence and repressive measures. People died trying to cross the Berlin Wall into the West, for lord's sake.

A centrally planned economy has been tried and simply did not bring prosperity to the region. And while there were certain things DDR improved upon, it's legacy is a shameful stain on Germany's history. Die Linke knows not to brandish its ties to the former DDR establishment, why don't you? To suggest that Germany, I don't know... simply gives it another chance is incredibly insulting to the point I don't think you comprehend what you are even stating. If you go to Dresden or Berlin and tell anyone there that perhaps they should try communism if the CDU is disappointing, expect to be slapped on the face. Communism has made its reputation in the former Eastern Bloc clear, no one wants it back. No one wants to consider a vaguely M-L state ever again. Even in Yugoslavia, which was somewhat Market Socialist, the memory of it is anything but fond. And while Socialism in some vague form may take roots there, it will not be without working within the capitalist economy that those governments have tried so hard and so painfully to switch to.

I have seen a few instances of people telling the former Warsaw Pact countries to try again and every time it was nothing short of outrageous. And before you say "well obviously I meant the better forms of communism, like my strain of it", word your statements better and do not try to even call it communism if you are trying to pitch it to them. One would know better than to call upon the name of the system that the general populace there understands as a deeply totalitarian system where you'd get harassed if not killed for mounting any opposition, even legal, to the ruling government.

https://knockout.chat/thread/83322

User in question is Polish (but moved away)

———————————————

The response to it ain't any better either lol

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[–] Soot@hexbear.net 52 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (2 children)

Every time I hear this level of self-assured assertion that Easten Europeans would stab you daring to utter the word communism, it seems to be a Polish person saying it. Is this falsehood just a part of their national educational curriculum or something?

Far from being, "hardly a good state to live in", most East Germans specifically say life was good there.

20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, 57 percent, or an absolute majority, of eastern Germans defend the former East Germany. "The GDR had more good sides than bad sides. There were some problems, but life was good there," say 49 percent of those polled. Eight percent of eastern Germans flatly oppose all criticism of their former home and agree with the statement: "The GDR had, for the most part, good sides. Life there was happier and better than in reunified Germany today."

-Speigel, 2009

[–] TreadOnMe@hexbear.net 11 points 3 days ago

The real reason I know that the DDR was good is because every East German that crossed over during that period literally makes that their entire personality, and are among the most irritating people I have ever had the pleasure of speaking to (and I didn't even speak to them about politics).

[–] Gosplan14_the_Third@hexbear.net 11 points 3 days ago

Every time I hear this level of self-assured assertion that Easten Europeans would stab you daring to utter the word communism, it seems to be a Polish person saying it. Is this falsehood just a part of their national educational curriculum or something?

Yeah

[–] PKMKII@hexbear.net 44 points 4 days ago (1 children)

You can have a look at various map breakdowns of Germany to see how East Germany fares to this day in economic development, average income, HDI and voting patterns.

Then why hasn’t nearly 40 years of liberalization brought it on par with western Germany? If capitalism is supposed to make everyone’s economic status better, then why hasn’t that happened in eastern Germany?

[–] doublepepperoni@hexbear.net 23 points 4 days ago (1 children)

That's just how bad communism is maybe-later-kiddo

[–] Carl@hexbear.net 32 points 4 days ago (2 children)

I just got to say I've talked about politics with Germans and they're a lot more receptive to Communism and socialism then the average American is. Poland did propaganda to its people on a whole other level and that's why it's currently one of if not the most fascist states in Europe.

[–] Gosplan14_the_Third@hexbear.net 14 points 3 days ago

Poland's PZPR was also a joke, it was completely uninterested in socialism or even claiming to be.

[–] ComradeRat@hexbear.net 15 points 4 days ago

Cowardly cornman called off the tanks and it was all downhill from there for poland and romania

[–] ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml 29 points 4 days ago (1 children)
[–] quarrk@hexbear.net 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

I hate when people vicariously assume another person’s supposed victimhood and argue on their behalf. Why should I care about some Aussie’s third-hand impression of communism in Germany several decades ago? Colonial mindset, let’s put our own words in other people’s mouths in order to justify our own worldview

[–] Emmi@lemmygrad.ml 4 points 2 days ago

Not an Aussie (she's Polish, emigrated to Australia)

[–] WilliamJenningsBryanJonestownMassacre@hexbear.net 22 points 4 days ago (1 children)

communism as an alternative for Germany

everything i don't like is AfD lol

[–] TrustedFeline@hexbear.net 13 points 3 days ago

I think it reads more like: we need an AfD, it just can't be communism. (no comment on name-brand AfD)

[–] ClassIsOver@hexbear.net 27 points 4 days ago

Thank you for your shit take, The Woke Princess.

[–] red_giant@hexbear.net 24 points 4 days ago

Compare that economic progress since reunification to before reunification

[–] mr_sunburn@hexbear.net 21 points 4 days ago

It's funny to me that the poster considers it the ultimate serve that if you go up to people and ask them about Socialism they'll punch you. And I suppose after that everyone will clap.

[–] Evilsandwichman@hexbear.net 20 points 4 days ago

who was in the revealed Stasi files

Skill issue

[–] AnarchoBolshevik@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 2 days ago

in the GDDR it was illegal to be happy and there were no homes anywhere and freedom was illegal and democracy was banned and they forced you to not be homeless and healthcare didnt exist only it did exist and it was the worst ever you had to wait 9999 years to get healthcare and pay for it vodka only the police executed you because they banned healthcare and made food illegal and you had to eat off the black market that the police provided except they shot you for getting food since food was banned and they controlled the prices so food only cost 0.00000001$ so nobody ever grew aniamsl and literally everybody hated it hated east germany i mean so anyway 69 million people tried to scale the berlin wall but they all starved as they were exeectuted by the statsi and you couldnt be patriotic or vote and they forced you to vote except they exceuted you because voting was illegal and they forced you to smile for the camera only the police executed you because being happy was banned and you couldnt do anything or go anywhere or be anything and now literally whenever you literally mention communism to germans they literally all murder you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But seriously:

Western researchers have noted that in the recollections of those who lived in the GDR, the socialist state takes on a more positive aspect. This has been widely dismissed as ‘Ostalgie’ (a conflation of nostalgia and Osten [East] — suggesting a rosy yearning for a mythical life in the GDR. However, those from East Germany have the advantage that they are able to compare both systems because they have experienced life in both. In retrospect, particular aspects of GDR society are seen as more significant today when compared to life in the West.

There is no society where approximately 99% of the population hates every single second of it and is constantly screaming for release. I wouldn’t adopt this narrative even for anticommunist piss buckets like Chile. Don’t be fucking boneheaded.

[–] grandepequeno@hexbear.net 22 points 4 days ago (1 children)

wow what is this forum it looks old school but also...new school

[–] Staines@hexbear.net 39 points 4 days ago (3 children)

It's Knock Out, a community re-make of 2004-2020 Facepunch gmod forum, which were loosely based on somethingawful. It's an interesting microcosm because the usebase hasn't really expanded for decades, creating almost a 22 year old window into peoples lives via an old school forum.

Ideologically it's LGBT Lib (Lockheed, Grumman, BAE, Thales).

[–] Emmi@lemmygrad.ml 32 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Ideologically it’s LGBT Lib

Yeah... it's lib alright

[–] stink@lemmygrad.ml 8 points 4 days ago

Not to be confused with Punch Out, a 2009 boxing video game developed by Next Level Games and published by Nintendo for the Wii.

[–] SpookyBogMonster@lemmy.ml 7 points 4 days ago

I miss classic web forums... Hexbear should have a PHPBB

[–] FortifiedAttack@hexbear.net 13 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Knockout is on a roll lately.

"Russia is bankrolling propaganda whitewashing communism because Putin is a Nazi"

I'm glad they hid their actual Politics section from public view, I probably would have gotten an aneurism from their takes otherwise.

[–] FortifiedAttack@hexbear.net 15 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Russia has totally broken Europeans' brains. They are completely stuck on the idea that Russia is the biggest most vile evil ever and responsible for all the evils in the world, and this leads them to completely nonsensical conclusions.

It's akin to trying to deduce a mathematical formula where your assumptions are wrong, e.g. assuming that dividing by zero is possible and results in a specific value. Your results will only end up with contradictions.

And it's infuriating because they are SO CLOSE to seeing the light. But they cannot let go of their faulty axioms.

[–] infuziSporg@hexbear.net 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

What the hell is "phylorussian"? Is it just something that abbreviates to Prussian? Are they superficially Russian-like on the outside? Do they grow leaves striped like a St. George's ribbon? Is this some gigabrain phrenology that includes eastern Germany and Russia in a phylum distinct from the rest of Europe? I need to know!

[–] Blakey@hexbear.net 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Nothing so exciting. I assume it's meant to say philorussian, by analogy to philosemitic, meaning basically "Russia lover". Philosemite is more about an appreciation, admiration and/or affiliation with Jewish culture I believe but they're obviously trying to be insulting so, "Russia lover" it is.

[–] infuziSporg@hexbear.net 1 points 2 days ago

no that's Russophile, that's different

i need to know the phylogenetic or phylomorphological relation of Muscovy to Brandenburg and Meckelenburg and Upper Saxony and Thuringia

there is no way they are that bad at both greek and english

[–] Emmi@lemmygrad.ml 11 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I’m glad they hid their actual Politics section from public view, I probably would have gotten an aneurism from their takes otherwise.

The amount of "Radio Free Asia" articles and dehumanizing "news" on China and DPRK in their now hidden politics section is quite something. I kinda sort of regret deleting my account but after their absolutely disgusting, racist, chauvinistic and white supremacist takes on DPRK and China I just had enough of it.

[–] FortifiedAttack@hexbear.net 8 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I deleted mine about a year after the Ukraine war kicked off.

There was this mercenary fighting for Ukraine on the forum, SgtMuffin I think, who they worshipped as their glorious hero, and who kept posting the most ridiculous propaganda stories straight from NAFO/Azov Twitter. He ended up getting temp banned for a week over some minor rule breaking somewhere, which offended him so much that he never came back after the ban expired.

I think it's gotten a lot better over the years, but back in 2022/2023, especially before the Palestinian genocide kicked off, the forum was aggressively neoliberal.

[–] Emmi@lemmygrad.ml 6 points 3 days ago

I was not any better back then, sad as it is to admit.

I remember SgtMuffin, I also remember another user there who was fighting there too that ended up being deleting his account (or getting permad) after getting more and more aggressive. Was obsessed with killing Russians.

[–] Emmi@lemmygrad.ml 15 points 4 days ago (2 children)

The response to it ain't any better either lol

[–] Emmi@lemmygrad.ml 11 points 4 days ago (1 children)

USSR (actually EVIL Russia) colonized DDR and was worse than capitalism

[–] Krem@hexbear.net 14 points 4 days ago

germans want to be victims of history so bad

[–] FortifiedAttack@hexbear.net 9 points 3 days ago

"anti authoritarian communism" aka. "asking the capitalists and fascists nicely to stop"

[–] infuziSporg@hexbear.net 5 points 3 days ago

We oughtta have a user named isuggestcommunism that just pops in and says "I have a suggestion."

[–] Acute_Engles@hexbear.net 5 points 3 days ago

There's a forum that was originally for diablo 2 trading (still is i suppose) that's one of these time capsules with essentially the same userbase since 15+ years that this reminds me of.

I wish that forum hid the politics section... horrid

[–] peeonyou@hexbear.net 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

PEOPLE DIED CLIMBING OVER THE WALL TO GET TO THE OTHER SIDE FOR CHRISTS SAKE